Syrian Army Retakes Control of Key Airbase in Idlib

TEHRAN (Tasnim) - The Syrian army managed to retake full control of Abu al-Duhour airbase, one of the key military bases in the northwestern province of Idlib.

The base was lost to terrorist groups in 2015. The capture is considered as a significant achievement for the Syrian forces since Idlib, near Turkey borders, is mainly controlled by opposition forces and terrorist groups, such as al-Nusra Front.

The Syrian army units, in cooperation with allied forces, had continued their operations on terrorists’ hotbeds and fortified positions in the southern countryside of the Idlib province on Friday, restoring control over Qaytal village after killing a number of al-Nusra Front and its affiliated terrorist groups’ elements.

In the meantime, a military source told the Arabic-language Al-Masdar News that the entire 128th Brigade of the Syria’s Republican Guard has been redeployed from the Qalamoun Mountains to the Idlib Governorate to aid the Tiger Forces in the offensive to capture the strategic Abu al-Duhour Airport.

The 128th Brigade was one of the main forces behind the Syrian army’s successful campaigns in the Qalamoun Mountains. Due to the poor weather, the Syrian army’s Tiger Forces could not have an operation in the Abu al-Duhour Airport’s southern gates.

Syria is in the final stages of a battle against Takfiri terrorist groups that poured into the Arab country after the outbreak of the civil war in 2011.

On November 19, the Daesh (ISIL) terrorist group was flushed out of its last stronghold in Syria’s Al-Bukamal. The city’s liberation marked an end to the group’s self-proclaimed caliphate it had declared in 2014.